In the municipality of San José de las Lajas, in the western Cuban province of Mayabeque, is the mining plant “Roberto Coco Peredo”, dedicated to the extraction of calcium carbonate.
Belonging to the Empresa Minera de Occidente, the “Coco Peredo” has an indisputable weight in the production in Cuba —and, consequently, to supply imports— of a mineral of wide industrial use, used in the chemical industry, cosmetics, animal feed and even in pharmaceuticals, among other applications.
With just over a hundred workers, the plant has an installed production capacity of 30,000 tons per year of retail products and 60,000 tons of larger diameter products, according to recent press reports on its growth plans and new international contracts.
“We have quality —because the mineral has an extreme quality—, we have high productivity, low cost and what we have to do is improve the presentation and conquer the market. We are in that process now.” explained to the agency EFE Rolando Tapanes, the director of the plant.
According to the Spanish media, the “Coco Peredo” will be the protagonist of a contract between Minera de Occidente and the Cuban-Spanish joint venture Winperas, with the participation of the Spanish company Winkler Panamericana (Winpan).
Through this agreement, the Cuban entity is committed to supplying some 400 tons of calcium carbonate per month for three years, which will replace a Spanish-made product and will save four million dollars a year, according to Tápanes, who added that the entity “aspires to expand its export portfolio.”
These statements were made by the manager during a media visit to the plant and its mine this week. Our photojournalist Otmaro Rodríguez was there, who shows us snapshots of the work that is carried out there, as part of the declared state effort to revive the mining industry on the Island.
